Maldives Aggressor

[Utila Simon]

Spent some time on the Maldives Aggressor in November and had a great time, thought i would tell y'all about it (in brief) as no-one else seems to have!

The yacht is 120 foot sailing vessel, although the sails are, quite frankly, a bit cosmetic (as they tend to be on this kind of vessel). You will see them for around 15 minutes per week for a photo-op. She was completed around 12 months ago in Turkey and then sailed down to the Maldives, narrowly avoiding being hijacked by Somali Pirates (really!).

Sadly she shows one or two signs of poor Turkish construction already, but in the main she is very pretty and very comfortable, both inside and out.

The crew, led by Capt Hussain and Capt Belinda (go Bee!), took excellent care of us. A total of 13 (yes thirteen, including dhoni crew) fed us well- and we particularly appreciated the Maldivean Night- took care of us underwater and generally pampered us. The diving was conducted from a 60 foot Dhoni which was more than adequate for the job, and all our gear stayed there for the duration of the week.

Underwater, well it was the Maldives. We arrived the week after a huge storm had battered the place so vis was pretty bad but Manta Point was a favorite for all and Capt Bee showed great flexibility by changing the schedule at our request to go back there for a second dive at the end of the week. No Whale Sharks this time, but always the potential, and the drift diving was above average and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

In short-
Ship- 4/5 (one or two area of poor construction)
Crew- 5/5 (lots of smiles and good humor)
Food- 4/5 (had better, but it was good)
Service- 5/5 (loads of crew)
Diving- 4/5 (vis)

Its worth a go, but do your research, I hear some times of the year are better than others.

Check out our Manta video-
YouTube - Maldives Mantas.mov

All in my (ever so) humble opinion!
Simon

PS Am off to cocos for 3 weeks so no replies to questions til then!

 

[mantajohn]

Hi Simon

good to hear from you. Sounds like a great trip.

A couple of questions if i may...

a) what sort of dive sites did the MA choose. My best diving in the Maldives has been from the less luxurious boats. There are rumours that the MA & PH boats avoid the strong current sites. It would be great if that were untrue - as i like both strong curents & luxury!
b) how did it work with just 1 dhoni for so many guests. When i was on Nautilus II, they had a similar set up & it did not work too well. With a bit of current flowing, the last pair in had no chance of hooking up with the guide who went in first.

I'm thinking of returning to the Maldives quite soon & haven't chosen a boat yet - so i'd value your thoughts.

ps when/where will you be back at see? We'd like to travel with you again

cheers

John

 

[Utila Simon]

Hi John, good to hear from you and sorry for the delay in writing.
We certainly did some high current dives, probably 4 in all were ripping! I dont know what we didnt do, of course, but there was a reasonable amount of adrenalin!
Second, we didnt seem to have problems with only 1 dhoni. There are actually 4 entry points, either side of the bow and at the two doorways so the camera laden divers went out of the doors and the others went off the bow. Seemed to work Ok.
Hope this helps.
Hope to catch up underwater sometime...
Cheers

 

[mantajohn]

Simon

Its good to hear that the MA does do the high current dives. i'll ad it to my wish list. I forgot to mention - great manta video.

Whilst you were on MA - i took a 10 day trip on Komodo Dancer (Alor itinerary). Also a great experience - but for the macro stuff. It was a first to have a buddy take a magnifying glass out on a dive.

Cheers

John

 

[SMM]

Hello! I am a little late to this thread, but I have just returned from a trip on the Ocean Dancer in the Maldives, and thought I would add to the earlier post regarding strong currents, and dive sites. The Ocean Dancer is the most beautiful liveaboard I have been on...David, the owner, has taken a lot of pride in making a boat that is luxurious, and very comfortable and functional. As for the diving, I had hoped that what I had read about avoiding high current dives on this boat would be untrue, but in reality, we did seem to go to the easier, house reef dive sites. The diving was not bad, but I feel we missed out on some of the better places to appease the majority of divers on the boat who wanted to avoid strong currents. There were four of us who wanted to go to the "harder" dive sites, and the rest of the goup was happy to swim around on house reefs by some of the island resorts. I will add that we had two Manta dives that were spectacular! I would recommend this particular boat to someone who wants the best accomodations on a boat, and the best food, and service, but if you are looking to do the best diving in the Maldives, I think there are other boats that would be better suited.

 

[eytokyo]

I'm planning a Christmas dive in Maldives with the Aggressor... can you tell me about your fellow passengers? I've heard anecdotally that they can be an upscale group? Someone described them as lawyers and other professionals...(nothing against lawyers) I don't have any problem with upscale yuppies, as long as they are fun! I know it depends on the trip, but just curious what your experiences were.